The Influence of Social Media on Your Divorce

Posted By Cairns Law Offices || 22-Aug-2013

Social media is a part of our culture these days. A large portion of people have at least one form of a social profile or social platform. Whether they are keeping in touch through Facebook, Tweeting updates or posting pictures and videos on Instagram, a lot of people share personal aspects of their life with the general public. While there are privacy setting that can help limit who sees what, these settings are somewhat limiting and friends and family will still have access to what that person is putting out there. Don’t think that putting your profile on private protects you from everything.

Some people forget just who follows them when they are updating their status. It may be a boss at work who sees them posting pictures while they are out of the office “sick.” It can also be a spouse that they are in the middle of divorcing that has access to relevant information. It is also important to remember that every person considered a friend on Facebook may not be one in real life. Loyalty can be divided in a divorce and so called “friends” may be giving information to the other party. Blocking a spouse during a divorce doesn’t mean that there is complete freedom to continue posting information as usual. There may people that are not blocked who can still view everything put up on a profile.

Through social media, many people make mistakes with what they say, and others can gain pertinent information from those errors. This may include a spouse who is not sharing all the assets that need to be included in the divorce. They just bought a new boat and posted pictures on the account? That money and purchase wasn’t shared when looking at how to divide assets. A spouse got a raise at work or a bonus, but they didn’t feel the need to let their spouse or the attorney know about it.

If you are going through a divorce yourself, think about the role that social media can have in your situation. Even if you and your spouse are working together in an uncontested divorce, it doesn’t mean that you should not be taking precaution or being proactive. Make sure that you are not putting information that can be taken out of context or that could hurt your case. If you wouldn’t want your spouse to know it, then don’t share it on your Twitter account.

In addition to being public information, a social media account can also be permanent. Even if you deleted it shortly after posting it, your spouse could have already taken a screen shot of it by that point. In addition to watching what you put out there, you can also keep up to date on your soon to be former spouse’s profiles to see if they are revealing any information that they failed to share with you. This can be through the social media accounts, but any dating profiles that they open up can have valuable information as well. Social media has a large impact on our social life these days and sometimes it can extend far deeper than just catching up with an old friend from high school. Make sure that you are cautious and you don’t do anything that could impede your goals in the divorce. If you are going through a divorce or considering filing, speak with the Pennsylvania uncontested divorce attorney at Cairns Law Offices for exceptional guidance throughout the process.